The last post from Sydney for a while, since I'm hopping aboard a plane to Cairns this afternoon. It was nice to escape the heat in Toronto by going to the cool of Sydney.... um, how mixed-up is that? Yeah yeah, I know it's winter here. Funny seeing the sales on winter clothing, you know long sleeve shirts, light pants, etc. It gets hot enough during the day to wear shorts, and I even saw people swimming in the ocean without wetsuits, but once you are out of the sun, you are happy to have your sweater (if you are smart enough to bring it, that is).

Anyone who has ever told me that Australia is cheap is a liar! This morning I paid $7 for a coffee and a muffin. I'm not sure if this is a food-only thing, a Sydney thing, or a snag-the-tourist thing, but believe me, the $5 breakfast is only a myth in these parts.

I woke up on Friday the 11th and headed out early to explore Sydney, since my cousin and his wife were in the midst of moving. I cut through the Royal Botanical Gardens, where fruitbats nest by day (at dusk they swarm up into the sky in clouds, although I haven't seen this yet), then wandered by Circular Quay, where the Harbour Ferries dock and buskers play for tourists, and finally up into the Rocks, a historic district of little boutique shops and neat little alleys. As an aside, Sydney's layout seems to be a random assortment of updated cart tracks, up and down the hills in amongst the palms. For a guy used to the grid system, it is really cool to explore, although more often than not I was actually wandering around the alleys where everyone stows their garbage. When it came time to build expressways for commuters, the city planners simply drilled tunnels under the city rather than above ground. It is nice not to have the ocean cut off by unsightly via-ducts, but it seems they were designed by the same lunatics who laid out the cart tracks.... ahem.

Later on in the day, I met up with Norm, and we took a ferry over to the beaches of Manly, which gave me a chance to check out Sydney Harbour. Manly was hopping, and reminded me a bit of South Beach without so much of the Art Deco. Still, there is a style here I can't put my finger on... colonial? victorian? Two storey houses with elaborate ironwork gates and fencing.

The next day, we went to Bondi Beach, where I watched the Surf Lifeguards run drills and surfers do their thing... I can't wait to try it, but it wasn't time yet, and I forgot my bathing suit. I walked along the coast from Bondi, past the Iceberg pool which is filled by high tide each day, past Tamarama Beach to Bronte, where I felt hungry until I saw that burgers were $15. Checked out a surf shop in Bondi Junction and then headed back to Norm's in Potts Point.

Later that night, there was a going away party for Karen (off to work in Thailand), where I met Dave, a dear friend of my cousin Mary K. Dave took over the babysitting duties from Norm, and showed me a fantastic night on the town (I think), throughout which he was so generous it made me want to cry. Shouts out to Bex, Mandy, Sarah and Sam, and Andrew from Cairns. From Dave and Mandy's beautiful apartment overlooking Coogee Beach, we watched the sun come up over the ocean, the golden lining of the clouds exploding into fire, then off to bed. Woke up a few hours later to the sound of magpies and my head pounding.

Since then, it has been all about destimulation and laundry. More soon, I'm having a terrible time.